In the north, next to the frontier, land may be purchased at the rate of $3 to $10 an hectare. In the centre, from $6 to $15. In the south, the land rises to higher prices, which vary from $10 to $100 per hectare. The agricultural land in the environs of towns and villages, and in the departments of Canelones, Colonia, Soriano, San Jose, Paysandu, Salto costs $10, $20, $40, $50 and $100 an hectare. In the department of Montevideo it rises to $100, $200 and $300, according to the situation. There are no restrictions or difficulties in purchasing or transfer. Great companies established abroad, above all in England, and others in the Republic have purchased great tracts of land in order to improve cattle breeding, agriculture, sand and stone extraction along the banks of the River Plate and Uruguay, and other important rural industries. During these last two years the agricultural industry has notably spread itself, above all that of cereals, forage, firewood trees, vine, olive trees, tobacco and oleoginous and textile plants. The lowest rate at which a _suerte_ of land for cattle feeding can be hired is $400 a year. There are fields, however, that can produce two, three and four times more. The hectare of agricultural land may be hired at a yearly price of $1.20. In some departments, like that of Canelones, where the agricultural industry has improved a great deal, the yearly renting is $4.00 and more. The land pays the property tax or _Contribucion Inmobiliaria_, at the uniform rate of 6-1/2 per thousand in relation with the value that the law has fixed to the land according to the departments. Agriculture. The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is an essentially pastoral country. Its fields, covered with good and nutritive grass, are nearly all of them divided into _estancias_ for cattle breeding, that, to the present time, is the principal source of riches of the country. Agriculture, however, has already reached a high degree of importance in the departments of Montevideo, Canelones, Colonia, San Jose, Soriano, Paysandu, Salto, Florida, Durazno, Maldonado. It is not quite so important in the other departments as in the three first ones. However, in the environs of the villages and centres of population, there are great many farms and agricultural centres that produce cereals and vegetables for local consumption. The exceeding crop, in the prosperous years, is immediately sent to the principal commercia centres of the Republic, which allows the export of corn, flour, wheat, canary-seed, flax, trefoil, barley, etc. Although the Republic counts with a fertile soil, and finds itself in the very best conditions for any kind of agricultural industry, agriculture, however, remains still in a secondary degree, in spite of its late improvements, and in spite of the large extension of land which began last year to be cultivated.